THUNDER: Fresh off DL, Ramirez makes his debut at Arm & Hammer Park

Friday, April 26, 2013

By MIKE ASHMOREFor The Trentonian

TRENTON — Already an exciting team to watch, the Thunder found a way to get even more intriguing on Friday.

Jose Ramirez, who had some very impressive outings for the Yankees during this year’s big league spring training, was activated from the disabled list and made both his regular season and Double-A debuts at Arm & Hammer Park last night.

“He’s one of my favorite people,” said Trenton starting catcher J.R. Murphy through a big grin.

“He can be really good. He throws really hard, and he’s got a good arm angle where it’s really deceptive for both righties and lefties. His ball runs a little bit, and when he’s on, he can locate the ball well on both sides.”

The 23-year-old right-hander, considered New York’s 16th-best prospect according to Baseball America, entered the game at the beginning of the sixth inning in relief of Nik Turley and was very impressive, striking out six batters in four scoreless innings of work to pick up his first career save in his 89th minor league appearance.

He was added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster in the off-season, and could move quickly through the system if he continues putting up strong numbers. Last year, with High-A Tampa, the 6-foot-3, 190 pounder twice won Florida State League Pitcher of the Week honors en route to striking out 94 batters over 98 2/3 innings pitched. He posted a 7-6 record and 3.19 ERA, keeping hitters off-balance with a slider, changeup and plus fastball that touches 97 miles per hour.

Ramirez joins Slade Heathcott (2), Tyler Austin (4), Ramon Flores (12), Turley (14) and Murphy (15) as top-20 prospects on the Thunder roster. Soon, he’ll accompany Turley and three others in the rotation, given that this is expected to be the only time he pitches out of the bullpen. The five starters are currently comprised of Turley, Zach Nuding, Francisco Rondon, Matt Tracy and Caleb Cotham. A six-man rotation is unlikely.

“I don’t know where the rotation is going from here,” said Thunder pitching coach Tommy Phelps.

“As of now, we’ll have six starters. Maybe one will piggyback or something right now, but I don’t know that. That’s not my call, not my decision. But we’ve got some guys that are limited in overall innings for the year, so that might play a part in that.”

Notes: Infielder Kevin Mahoney, who represented the Thunder in the 2012 Eastern League All-Star Game, was promoted to Triple-A for the first time on Thursday. The 25-year-old, who was batting .231 with no home runs and three RBI in his first eight games, was replaced on the roster by outfielder Shane Brown. Brown, who was technically summoned from Short Season-A Staten Island despite never actually going there, has now been on and off the Trenton roster five different times in the first three weeks of the season.

“There’s a lot of value in having a person like that,” said Thunder manager Tony Franklin.

“It’s not very easy to do, not very easy to accept. Shane has accepted that (role) every time I’ve told him, and I know he’s disappointed...he just wants an opportunity to play, and it’s not easy to accept. But it’s part of the business, and he’s handled it very professionally.”